Struggling with a tenor

I love the nice and thin fan and transverse bracing... What I do a little different is to not tie off the fans to the lower transverse brace although doing it this way makes for a stronger construction and helps prevent the dreaded bridge rotation (bellying) down the line. My bridge plate is also is not that long

I do see what might be a potential problem down the line in that the neck block is skewed to the central axis. I get this too sometimes and it means shaping the neck heal slightly off to get a good, seamless join with a perfectly straight neck but structurally it is okay.
 
"the neck block is skewed to the central axis"

You can tell that from a photo? Might it not be photographic distortion?

John Colter
 
ukantor said:
"the neck block is skewed to the central axis"

You can tell that from a photo? Might it not be photographic distortion?

John Colter
Click to expand...

Yes! it is off a bit ...But I have a cunning plan to put it right :rolleyes:.....It's strange how that happens its not the first time. the black line is not the centre line, it's just the grain pattern at the side of the join.
 
Last edited:
Timbuck said:
....It's strange how that happens its not the first time.
Click to expand...

I've had it happen more times than I care to remember. Here is what happens I think: The sides may have some (or a lot) of residual spring back after bending. When the sides go into the mold they may not be totally flat to the sides of the mold and the sides are slightly torqued. The glued in block is then is slightly (or badly depending) off axis when the sides are later made flat to the mold with spreaders. My solution has been to make sure the sides are flat to the mold by doing a complete spreader set-up prior to gluing in the blocks.

Also, when you make that all important join of the two sides at the neck end by cutting of the extra side bit after bending, make sure your join surfaces are truly perpendicular to the deck on both sides. In other words, when you make your mark for the cut, the sides should be in the mold with spreaders to keep everything perpendicular.

I've always felt that the neck block is the "corner stone" of uke construction. Get it as close to perfect as you can and construction flows off it much easier.

I'll shut up now :eek:ld:
 
sequoia said:
I've had it happen more times than I care to remember. Here is what happens I think: The sides may have some (or a lot) of residual spring back after bending. When the sides go into the mold they may not be totally flat to the sides of the mold and the sides are slightly torqued. The glued in block is then is slightly (or badly depending) off axis when the sides are later made flat to the mold with spreaders. My solution has been to make sure the sides are flat to the mold by doing a complete spreader set-up prior to gluing in the blocks.

Also, when you make that all important join of the two sides at the neck end by cutting of the extra side bit after bending, make sure your join surfaces are truly perpendicular to the deck on both sides. In other words, when you make your mark for the cut, the sides should be in the mold with spreaders to keep everything perpendicular.

I've always felt that the neck block is the "corner stone" of uke construction. Get it as close to perfect as you can and construction flows off it much easier.

I'll shut up now :eek:ld:
Click to expand...
i think Tim was being Tim, there is no skew if the black line is the grain and not the join.
 
Good news.....And bad.

The neck block turned out spot on in line with the neck (so no problem there) ..but! while gluing on the back, the end of the cross banding strip had fouled up on the tail block and prevented the back from mating up with the linings and leaving a gap :(....luckilyI spotted it before the glue had fully cured and I managed to prise the gap open enough to get a thin file in there and shave a few thou off the end of the offending banding. It now is all glued up again clamped and looking good.:cheers:
 
Last edited:
Now I’ve got the body together...I can now concentrate on the next bit...whatever that is.
While sanding down the edges I noticed a small area where the top showed a bit of the glue line where it had not been fully clamped down...and I said to myself “no problem the bindings will cover that”...then a terrible thought came into my head “Maybe that’s why all the others use bindings ?....just to cover up their shoddy work”:(
Please tell me that’s not true :rolleyes:
9FB51A4B-AF5D-4B3D-8487-4A3D5D71AD5C by Ken Timms, on Flickr
 
Timbuck said:
Now I’ve got the body together...I can now concentrate on the next bit...whatever that is.
Click to expand...

I think it is that long thin piece that sticks out of the body and holds the strings. But I could be wrong...

No, I don't think binding is usually done to hide mistakes because binding can cause more problems than it cures.
 
Thanks for the offer Pete...but I’m getting there slowly, Having Had the weekend off and a couple of early nights..I manage to do a bit more work on it ..I don’t know if fitting the binding will overkill the looks, but we’ll see about that at a later date....luckily I had a couple of spare Ebony bridges from the last tenors I made some years back, and I’ve made up an Ebony fretboard for it and it’s starting to look quite nice...this is a Glue less dry run shot. You’ll probably notice the longish slender taper on the peg head , here I have added an extra 1/2 inch between the nut and the tuners, I do this because I noticed when playing other tenor ukes the back of my hand caught on the tuner buttons when I played chords like E7 on the first fret. And it works for me :)
13360068-9491-43AC-9006-FD2BD390E32A by Ken Timms, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Yes, interesting peghead. It certainly is distinctive and if it contributes to overall playability why not go with it... As for binding, I could see leaving it off. Nice clean look so far.
 
Ms Bean said:
It's a looker, Ken!
Click to expand...
Thanks for that .....But! when I was a toolmaker and I made a jig or fixture out of steel..the older guy who I worked with used to say “if it looks a nice job then the operator who uses it will take more care of it”...same thing applies with musical instruments. But if they don’t play well and sound good or poorly constructed then they are just ornaments....I won’t know how this one will work out until the strings go on.:music:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

U
Struggling with truss rod adjustment on Flight GUT-350 Guitarlele
Replies
4
Views
669
ukeanixi
U
K
Struggling with strumming!
Replies
12
Views
2K
JackLuis
JackLuis
T
Struggling with Harmonics
Replies
13
Views
2K
prooftheory
prooftheory
checkerboard
Struggling with the Bm chord
2
Replies
27
Views
7K
nscafe
nscafe
C
Struggling to achieve Bmin cleary ?
Replies
6
Views
586
cantcook1
C
Top Bottom